1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an apparatus for re-orienting and transporting strips of material, and, in particular, to an apparatus for turning and transporting strips of metal, such as strips from which can ends are formed, to a hopper.
2. Description of the Related Art
Metal cans are commonly used to store food and drink products. The metal cans are usually formed of steel or aluminum and are most commonly of a cylindrical shape, although cans having a generally rectangular shape, often with rounded corners, are also used. The cans often have embossed shapes on the sides and the ends to strengthen the can. The metal of which cans are formed is often coated with coating material, especially on the inside surface of the can. The coating material is dependent on the food to be stored in the can. For example, tomato products require a coating that resists the acid from the tomatoes.
Three piece metal cans are formed from a usually cylindrical body and two end pieces that are attached at the respective ends of the cylinder. The first end cap is attached to the can body prior to filling the can and the second end cap is attached after the can is filled. Two piece cans are also used in which the bottom of the can is formed integrally with the sidewalls. The end cap is placed on the can body after the can is filled. The end pieces, either two end pieces for a three piece can or one for a two piece can, are disks of metal which are formed by, first, cutting coils of the steel or aluminum into strips, referred to as scroll strips, using a scroll shear. The scroll shear may also form any embossed shapes, or scrolls, on the can ends, as needed. Then the scroll strips are transported to an input hopper of a scroll press where the can ends are cut from the scroll strips. The can ends are thereafter transported either to an apparatus for affixing the first can end to the cylindrical can body of a three piece can, or to the canning plant for placement on the filled can.
To reduce waste to a minimum during cutting of the can ends, the scroll strips are shaped with irregular edges. The edge shapes are often not symmetrical and so the scroll strips can be fed at only one orientation into the hopper of the scroll press. Further, the scroll shapes or embossings on the strips may require a particular orientation of the scroll strips in the hopper. Additionally, the coatings which are on the ends require that a particular orientation top for bottom of the strips in the hopper of the scroll press. Therefore, it is often necessary to turn the scroll strips end-for-end and/or to rotate the scroll strips top-for-bottom prior to feeding the strips into the hopper.
The scroll strips from which the can ends are to be cut are output from the scroll shear at high speed and are currently transported by hand from the output of the scroll shear to the hopper on the scroll press. The scroll press also operates at high speed. Thus, the hand loading of the hopper must be performed quickly, usually by placing a stack of the strips into the hopper several times a minute. The scroll strips are long, for example, 36 inches in length, and are flexible so that they bow in the middle when handled. Add this to the fact that since they are of steel and are heavy and that they must be rotated end-for-end and/or top-for-bottom during the handling step leads to a difficult and monotonous task.
A popular model of shear press has its input hopper positioned at an angle behind a portion of the machinery, so that feeding the scroll strips into the hopper requires reaching over the machinery and placement of the strips in the angled hopper. Workers for such a task are prone to injury in addition to exhaustion and boredom.
Packaging of products, such as food products, is market driven by size. Instead of changing a price of the product, the size is changed, sometimes by only small amounts. Therefore, great demands are placed on a can manufacturing facility to change the sizes of the cans rapidly with as little down time as possible.